Biblische Ausbildung

Welcome to the Wonderful World of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible! Enjoy these postings of resources, projects by my students, movies and images, links, reflections, humor, and other items related to teaching the Bible at a Flagship Seminary. This blog is interactive: You can add your comments and post your questions. Go ahead, it's fun...

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Forthcoming: Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible

I contributed three articles, on the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi to this major new resource from Oxford. The two-volume (1,280 page) work is now slated to become available in just a few months, in November 2011 (in time for the SBL meetings). It is now posted on both the Amazon (click here) and Barnes & Noble (click here) WebSites.

Here is the brief description:

Books of the Bible provides a single source for authoritative reference overviews of scholarship on some of the most important topics of study in the field of biblical studies. The Encyclopedia contains almost 120 in-depth entries, ranging in length from 500 to 10,000 words, on each of the canonical books of the Bible, major apocryphal books of the New and Old Testaments, important noncanonical texts, and thematic essays on topics such as canonicity, textual criticism, and translation.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Hurricane Irene at VTS

The damage from the hurricane last night does not seem too severe around campus. We lost power for a few hours the middle of last night, but we woke up to full electricity. Several trees are down at VTS, most unfortunately the beautiful cherry try dedicated to Jane Morse in front of Aspinwall Hall (top photo; it was planted by her family in 1995).

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

About 10 members of my August Hebrew class have recorded a new rendition of Kol HaN'shamah, Psalm 150:6. Josh Hosler led the singing and edited the recording. He is calling the little singing group "Hag'Goyim" for the time being. I'm posting his recording here for easy download. Enjoy! Many thanks, Josh!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

As August Beginning-Hebrew continues, some of the students are finding helpful the Biblical Hebrew flashcards available free on Flashcard Exchange.com. The site already contains good flashcards of the Weingreen Hebrew Vocabulary lists that we are presently learning in class. To save the card sets under "My Stuff" --> "Saved Flashcards," you do have to register and get a password (I use the free version of the site). To get the flashcard sets into "My Stuff" you first have to search for them using the name Weingreen. We have found that these cards work great on a smartphone as well as on a laptop or tablet. The system is web-based, and the cards work right in the browser. No special app need be downloaded, although an app like mental-case more be good for use in "airplane mode."

Monday, August 22, 2011

Today in August Hebrew we learned the wonderful "rule of shewa"! Of course this gave us the occasion to view the computer animation, "Shewa Fight." The URL had changed a bit from when I first posted this link, so I've corrected the web-address and it should be easily accessible to all. Enjoy!

Chris had a straightforward objective: "Create a simple animation illustrating a shewa fight. When two shewas are found at the beginning of a word (Hebrew is read right to left), the first shewa becomes a hirriq." His achievement is brilliant (click here to view).

Friday, August 19, 2011

Several folks have emailed saying they are preaching on Isaiah 51:1–6 this Sunday, and have enjoyed my exegetical commentary in Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 3. THANK YOU! In this electronic era, you can be reading the Kindle edition in under a minute from right now! (click here).

Friday, August 12, 2011

Panorama of New Interim Chapel

Here is a 3D Panorama that I just shot of the just-completed Interim Chapel at VTS, built in the Addison Academic Building, in the area of the old Lettie Pate Evans Auditorium. Most here feel that it is a worthy space to use while we await the construction of a new chapel in the wake of the fiery destruction of the old VTS chapel last academic year. I just talked with our professor of music, Bill Roberts, who is delighted with the acoustics of the new space. You will notice that the chapel space is still somewhat incomplete. There is a frame for a small organ, but no pipes yet installed. The chairs are not yet the kind with kneelers. The space, however, appears fully usable and I'll be in their again in the mornings next week before my August Hebrew class begins at 9am just upstairs in Addison 101.

Duties of a son, from The Story of Aqhat: To erect a stele for his ancestral gods; to build a family shrine in the sanctuary;
to guard his footsteps from earth to underworld; to take his hand when he is drunk; to put his arm over one's shoulder when he is full of
wine; to eat a funeral meal in the temple of Ba'al; to offer a sacrifice in the house of El.